New York State Senate Chooses to Protect Donors, Hurt Constituents

“They voted to keep the flow of campaign cash running, consequences for the rest of the state be damned.”

Albany, NY – Today, after the New York Senate chose this weekend to reject provisions in their annual budget that would have closed the carried interest loophole (an egregious loophole that allows billionaire private equity and hedge fund managers to cut their tax rate nearly in half), Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

“Once again, Republican members of the New York Senate fought to protect their wealthy donors on Wall Street while ignoring the plight of the rest of the state. They just voted to leave the carried interest loophole open so that their donors, billionaire fund managers, can continue to pay a lower tax rate than teachers, janitors, or nurses. They voted to keep the flow of campaign cash running, consequences for the rest of the state be damned.

Closing the carried interest loophole would bring in $1.1 billion per year in New York alone – it’s impossible to justify leaving that amount of money on the table while the state is facing such a serious budget shortfall. I would challenge every member of the New York Senate who pushed to leave carried interest out of the budget to tell a child in a failing school or a homeless veteran that their wellbeing is less important than preserving a loophole for a few billionaires, but that would require them to actually meet with constituents who aren’t major donors. They’ve willfully disregarded their responsibility to the people of New York, and they should be ashamed.”

Proud “traitors to their class,” members of the Patriotic Millionaires are high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors who are united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America. The mission of The Patriotic Millionaires organization is to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting public policies based on the “first principles” of equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system. You can find out more at http://patrioticmillionaires.org/about/

The Patriotic Millionaires have appeared on hundreds of media outlets here and abroad, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and many others. You can find more coverage at http://patrioticmillionaires.org/media

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The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who are committed to building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation. The group focuses on promoting public policy solutions that encourage political equality; guarantee a sustaining wage for working Americans; and ensure that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay a greater percentage of taxes.